She Glows
by CJtheCregg
Summary: This was not how she'd planned her day to turn out. But something about that floppy hair, a crooked bow tie and the manic grin made her grab his hand when he said 'Run'


Note: This was written as picture prompt while encouraging my students to write. It wasn't written with the intention of being Doctor Who related or even published on this site. It was purely a case of writing while they wrote, which has been proven to encourage some students, as they see you doing the work too. It became what it became because my fingers on a keypad have a mind of their own, the story took over, and the picture prompt fit. Enjoy.

The glow was practically shining through the layers of skin and bone in my hand. It was creeping around the edges, and beaming out any crack it could find. I fumbled, trying to stop any light from peeking out, but it didn't seem to matter what I did. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't block the intense light from escaping.

"What's that?" I heard a voice behind me say.

"What's what?" I tried to cover.

"That weird light. Your whole hand is glowing. Are you an alien?" I turned around to see a suited man standing behind me.

I scoffed "An alien? Really? Do you think that if I were an alien I'd be standing out here in public just showing people that I was different?"

He smirked, and shrugged a shoulder, his bowtie tipping sideways. "You're already doing that….."

"Well….. yeah. But I'm not an alien." I replied, trying to subtly move my hand behind my back.

Suit guy quirked an eyebrow at me, and then smiled a toothy grin. "Well that's good. Because otherwise I'd have to take you in." He pulled a leather wallet out of his pocket and flipped it open, showing me something. "John Smith. FBI."

I squinted, torn between leaning in to get a closer look at his wallet, and running. Curiosity won. "Ummm…. I don't know what you think you're showing me, but that's just a blank piece of paper…."

Suit guy – sorry, John frowned. He flipped his wallet around and peered at it, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Nope!" he said, popping his p's. "This here is my FBI badge!"

I shuffled my feet, still caught on the edge of running, just taking off and forgetting about this weird man and his imaginary badge. "Yeah…. No. It's just a blank piece of paper. Sorry." The heat in my hand increased. I slowly moved my other arm behind my back, and carefully rubbed at my hand. The light was getting brighter my the second.

I couldn't tell if this was really some bizarre badge malfunction, and John Smith was actually just a befuddled FBI Agent who couldn't for the life of him figure out what on earth had happened to his badge, or if something a little more suspicious was going on.

"Ok. Here's the deal." John Smith said, looking anxiously around him. "I'm not actually an FBI agent."

"No kidding!" I snapped back, feeling the glow in my hand burn brighter. "FBI Agents don't generally wave blank bits of paper in the air."

The 'Agent' cleared his throat, and smiled. "Yes, well. Normally that blank piece of paper is psychic. It shows you what you're expecting to see. If I say I'm an FBI Agent, and hold it up, your brain automatically expects to see an FBI badge. And voila! That's what it looks like."

"Except it's doesn't." I stated. "It just looks like paper."

He scowled, "Yes. Which means that either it's not working….. or…." He paused.

"Or what?" I replied, wincing as the glow in my hands pierced through my skin.

"Or! Or! Or! Or!" He bounced from one foot to the other. "Or! You're a little bit different aren't you?"  
I sighed "I'm not an alien. I think we covered that when we first met."

"Ohhhhh I don't know…" he kept bouncing, "I bet you're pretty smart!"  
"I have my moments." I replied, dryly.

"Know lots of stuff, you do. Stuff no one else knows. And!" he exclaimed, practically doing jumping jacks. "When you stand still, you can feel the earth turning under your feet, can't you Impossible Girl? Feel the spin of the planet, and the breeze from space. The pull of the moon?"

"Ummm…. I just… I have a sensitive nervous system?" I questioned, as light poured out from behind my back.

"Two heartbeats!" he exclaimed! "You have two hearts! Don't deny it, I can hear them from here." His feet were moving so fast that it looked like he was trying to dance an Irish jig. His grin beamed off his face, almost as bright as the light that was now lighting me up.

"It's a birth defect!" I shouted. "You….. I….. I was born like this."

"You're an alien!" He crowed. "A real, honest to goodness, alien!"

"I am not!"

"You are too!"

I sighed. Clearly this argument wasn't going to end anytime soon, and I really didn't have time for this right now. The glow had increased, had covered my entire body by this point. "Fine, yes. Great. I'm a glowing alien. Now watch out!" I shouted.

His grin intensified, his face lighting up – and not just from the reflection of my glow. He stepped back a few steps, and with joy, watched as I exploded into a fireworks display of lights. The burning intensified, every molecule in my body burnt, and rewrote itself. My skin burst apart, and then knitted back together, my eyes saw only white light and the sound of bells and drums boomed louder and louder, until everything stopped.

I blinked. Silence. Darkness. No more glowing. Carefully, I opened my eyes and picked myself up off the ground. I turned. The man stood there, still grinning. He held out his hand. "Hello. I'm the Doctor." His hand slipped into mine. "Run!"


End file.
